DESPAIRING FOR WHILE HOPING FOR THE WOGS

Two Pulls: Questions Iran raises (Richard Brookhiser, June 19, 2003, National Review)

Events in Iran raise, for the manyeth time, a tension in fundamental conservative attitudes towards freedom struggles around the world. As a conservative, I feel two pulls.

One is Tory (often, though not exclusively, English), which might be summed up as "bloody natives." The classic 20th-century expressions were Evelyn Waugh's African novels, Scoop and the far meaner Black Mischief. The Tory attitude colors many of the ethnic observations in the 11th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (Circassians are brave, but thievish - that kind of thing). The Tory believes that the world is full of colorful and fascinating peoples who are, however, mostly incapable of good government and self-rule. [...]

Simultaneously, and as Americans, we believe "The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time. The hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them" (Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British North America). This is what our Founders believe. If they were wrong, the country sucks.

Toryism can lead to nihilism, and acquiescence in tyranny (the tyrant's plea, necessity). Americanism can lead to childish enthusiasm, and painful surprises.

Luckily, we need not choose between these two pulls. We can, indeed must be, be skeptical about the future of freedom in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Palestine even as we hope there is one. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 22, 2003 10:43 AM